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NIAMS Day 2003
Jean Pickford, Executive Director, and Maureen Tierney, Program Director, traveled to Washington, D.C., for NIAMS Day 2003 on March 10 and 11. This two-day event brings together patient advocate groups who benefit from research sponsored by the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Disease (NIAMS) branch of the National Institutes of Health. (NIH). Jean and Maureen met with Dr. Stephen Katz, NIAMS Director, and other members of the Coalition of Skin Diseases. Dr. Katz updated the group on the Institute’s recent activities and its current focus on clinical research, and some other initiatives: - Improving the coordinaion and support between other institutes for multi-symptom diseases.
- Improving the methodology of measuring patient awareness in prevention strategies, lifestyle behavior and the workplace environment in relationship to skin disease.
- Sponsorship of a meeting to analyze the burden of skin disease. a career path.
- Providing training grants to young investigators, in partnership with the Herzog Foundation.
- Providing valuable resources for the dissemination of information on musculoskeletal and skin diseases.
Members of the NIAMS Coalition then broke into small groups and visited our area representatives in Congress and their Senators. Our purpose was to stress the importance of increasing the NIH budget, particularly NIAMS, in 2004. Over the past five years, Congress has successfully fulfilled its plan to double the NIH budget. Although it is not realistic to expect such generous increases in the future, it is important to keep yearly increases substantial. The funding must continue in order to capitalize on the research advances of the past few years, or we risk the loss of new and innovative theories.
Special thanks to the American College of Rheumatology for coordinating NIAMS Day and scheduling our appointments with the Representatives’ and Senators’ staffers.
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